“In fall 2016, I co-authored the book The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change
Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying our Politics, and Driving us Crazy with Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles. At that time, many felt that climate change denial had been rendered irrelevant—that we were past it, and
ready to tackle the problem head on. With the election as President of Donald J. Trump—an individual who rejects the overwhelming consensus of the world’s scientists that climate change is real and human-caused—denialism, however, has now officially
infected the very highest level of our government. The official policy of the US government is distraction, denial, and delay, and doubling down on our headlong exploitation of dirty fossil fuel energy. I update the story told by The
Madhouse Effect using humor, satire, and, where appropriate, ridicule, built around Tom Toles’ famously insightful, edgy, and provocative climate-themed cartoons in the Washington Post.

“I will review the scientific evidence of climate change, the reasons we should care, and the often absurd efforts by special interests and partisan political figures to confuse the public, attack the science and scientists, and deny that a problem
even exists. Despite the monumental nature of the challenge we face, particularly in the era of Trump, I will explain why I’m cautiously optimistic we will prevail in the greatest battle human civilization has ever faced—the battle to avert catastrophic
and irreversible climate change impacts.”

With over 34,000 citations to his 200+ peer-reviewed and edited publications, op-eds, commentaries, and four books, Mann’s primary research focus involves using theoretical models and observational data to form a better understanding of Earth’s climate
system.

Mann was a lead author on the “Observed Climate Variability and Change” chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change Third Scientific Assessment Report (2001). Together with the other co-authors, Mann contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC and Al Gore.

Mann has received numerous honors and awards including, but not limited to, the NOAA’s outstanding publication award (2002), the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union (2012), the national Conservation Achievement Award for science by the
National Wildlife Federation (2013), and the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union (2018).

Mann is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is also a co-founder of the
award-winning science website RealClimate.org.

Please join us for this exciting talk, followed by a guided question-and-answer session and/or open forum from 3:30 to 4:00 p.m.